An AMP Paywall and Subscription Model for All Publishers

A majority of mobile users will not wait longer than3 secondsfor a page to load before moving on, creating a marked decline in revenue for sites that load slowly. It’s this desire for speed and convenience on both the user and publisher’s part that spurred Google and others to spearhead the creation of theAMP Project (Accelerated Mobile Pages), an open source project designed to improve the mobile browsing experience by generating static content pages that render at lightning speed.

Publishers – aware of user’s shift to mobile, their desire for rapid access to content, and the fact that Google accounts for as much as40 percent of referral traffic– have widely jumped on board and adopted the project’s code to develop AMP pages.

Monetizing AMP

As the open platform has evolved through integration with third party services – growing from 2 vendors at launch to 120 today – so too have monetization strategies for AMP. Adding paywall and subscription support has always been a top priority within the AMP community. However, no out-of-box solution existed for publishers lacking the resources to adapt their in-house paywall and subscription model to work in the AMP specification.

To empower quality journalism and support the efforts of publishers to monetize their content, LaterPay has leveraged AMP’s ability to integrate with third party services to develop a component that allows all publishers to easily include a paywall and subscription model, as well as a paygate which allows monetization of single purchases through LaterPay in their AMP monetization strategy. CalledAMP Access LaterPay, the component integrates LaterPay directly into publisher’s AMP pages.

The Need for Speed

LaterPay is the industry’s first on-platform payment infrastructure designed to increase user conversion rates by offering immediate, frictionless access to paid content or services. The patented model offers the speed and convenience vital to content monetization. A slow, cumbersome registration and payment process instead of getting the desired content right away is likely to discourage users and adversely impact revenue.

A typical registration and payment process can take upward of 3 minutes to complete. LaterPay’s model reduces this important first purchasing decision to less than 10 seconds for 78% of users. This is achieved by removing the upfront registration and payment process – which derails over 98% of all payments – so content providers can start monetizing their assets immediately. LaterPay’s integration with AMP further streamlines the process to 3 seconds on average.

When browsing paid content, users are prompted with a number of purchasing options – as shown below – predetermined by the publisher. For instance, publishers can prompt users to purchase a specific article, a time pass, or a full subscription.

Alternatively, publishers can customize their offering and forgo certain options such as time passes.

Users make their selection quickly and begin to accumulate a running tab based on the content they consume. Purchased content is aggregated and consumers are only prompted to register and pay once they hit the threshold of $5 or €5. LaterPay streamlines the registration process as well by enabling users to sign up using their Facebook or Google+ login information, rather than creating a new account.

By deferring registration and payment until users reach the threshold, LaterPay has been show to increase the user’s propensity to pay (with currently 75.5% registering and paying once reaching the threshold.) Further, by providing content providers with multiple options for monetization, publishers can more effectively convert users and take advantage of the vast space between ads and subscriptions.

Follow the documentation on theAMP Access LaterPay page for integrating the component into your pages.

Follow the Connectordocumentation on how to configure Connector (be aware that the same kind of in page configuration via meta tags as in Connector is not supported)

About LaterPay

LaterPay is a SaaS payment infrastructure specifically created to enable “on platform” monetization. The patented solution provides a frictionless way to convert users into paying customers without upfront registration or payment. With LaterPay, customers are able to generate incremental revenues that complement subscription and ad models. By deferring registration and payment until users reach a $5* threshold, and by aggregating purchases across websites and devices, LaterPay increases the user’s propensity to pay and reaches unprecedented conversion rates. LaterPay offers a variety of optional revenue models including Time Passes and Subscriptions. Please visit LaterPay.net to learn more.